Cow facing slaughter escapes, briefly, before being shot

A cow scheduled for slaughter made a run for it after briefly escaping from a butcher's farm in Canton, a police report said.

But its getaway didn't last long. A police officer shot the cow after its owner, who had been chasing it, asked that it be euthanized, the report said.

The cow escaped from Boyer's Meat Processing, near Barr and Geddes, about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 22, prompting the owner to report the incident to police. Fortunately, the cow didn't make its way to any heavily traveled roads.

"It stayed in a wooded area," Detective Sgt. Dan Traylor said.

The owner had pursued the cow but couldn't catch it, so he summoned police and asked that it be euthanized. He was arranging to get it back to the butcher shop.

Choking, gun incident?

A Canton woman apparently cheating on her husband notified police after the man she was seeing choked her and pointed a gun to her head during a dispute, a report said.

The woman, who lives on Coachman Court in Canton, called from Redford to report an assault she said happened on Christmas Eve. However, police say she then become uncooperative.

The woman later changed her story and told police the man had a gun, but he was holding it rather than threatening her with it. She said he was upset that she was breaking off their relationship.

She showed no interest in pursuing charges.

Heroin overdose

Police went to a residence on Morton Taylor amid reports that a man had apparently overdosed on heroin, a report said.

Police received a call about 5:30 a.m. Christmas Eve that the 50-year-old man was lying on the floor, unconscious but still breathing. He reportedly had snorted heroin thinking it was cocaine, a witness told police.

The man didn't live at the residence but was spending the night. Authorities were able to rouse him and paramedics took him to a hospital for treatment.

He denied using drugs, the report said.

Identity fraud

A 45-year-old man contacted police after he received a letter from Verizon about four new cellphones that had been ordered in his name.

Thing is, he didn't order them.

The man learned his identity had been fraudulently used sometime prior to Dec. 24. He called Verizon to report the incident and learned that the account using his name was in New York.

Then, he got a call from a credit card company that someone had tried to buy guns totaling $2,000 in Texas, but that attempt was denied.

The man told police he has placed an alert on his credit in hopes of avoiding any similar situations.